Raphael's Kunoichi
by ThornsOfaPerfectRose
Summary: When Leo and Raph get into a fight, it affects Karai in a strange way. RaphxKarai with a hint of LeoxKarai. I'll continue if I get enough reviews, so this can stay a one shot or become a chapter story.
1. Chapter 1

"Shut. Up." Raph said through gritted teeth as his knuckles turned white from being clenched so tight.

Leo shrugged, unable to keep the grin off his face. "All I'm saying, great undefeated Raphael, is I just crushed you like a bug."

"You should be an exterminator!" Mikey chimed in.

Leo's already huge smile widened. "Yeah, I mean, I crushed you like a little cockroach- you know, the kind that has you screaming for Splinter? That kind? Huh?"

The red ninja hunched his shoulders in an attemptrot keep calm and pretend their words weren't blow after blow to his ego, but with the cockroach comment he couldn't take it. Whipping around and aiming his fist for his older brother's face, he grunted, "I said, _shut_ _up._"

But Leonardo had caught his punch easily and now held the advantage, holding his arm at an awkward angle while shoving him down with a palm to the back. "You wanna go again? Or are you going to give up before I kick your shell?

"Face it, Raph, you're losing your edge."

Raph pushed past him and towards the exit. Donnie's curiousity got the better of him, and he couldn't help asking, "Where do you think you're going?"

He received a glare in return, followed by, "I need some air, and I need to get away from you jerks. I'm going topside."

Leo laughed in the way only a smug superior can. "Oh, now we're the jerks? Well I'mafraid you're only getting one of your requests; it's time for patrol, and we're all going up."

Raph groaned and walked past them as if his feet were iron blocks, narrowing his eyes and looking to the ground like it understood him more than anyone.

Halfway through a patrol that was painful for Raph and gloriously marvelous for his brothers (they wouldn't let him forget he'd lost a training fight to Leo), they were attacked seemingly out of nowhere.

A large amount of Foot soldiers, led by none other than Karai herself, ambushed them from above. Trapped at the end of an alleyway, the turtles could do nothing but stand and fight, though their odds weren't good against these kinds of numbers.

But nobody should underestimate Raphael when his pride has been wounded.

He leapt directly into the onslaught, slashing almost without looking and kicking before anyone was even there. It was incredible; he'd managed to take down at least twenty guys before his brothers even joined the fight.

When he saw an opening, he took it without question and sprinted to catch the Shredder's only daughter. He rammed his shoulder into her, causing her to fall through a narrow gap in the gate blocking off the area where the rest of the fighting took place from what looked like an abandoned municipal junkyard. She was completely cut off from her reinforcements.

Not that it mattered to her, as she simply grinned and attempted to stab him in the side of the shell before he dodged left as quickly as possible.

"Nice moves, princess, but it's gonna take a little more than that to beat me."

A chaotic rhythm ensued; him attacking full force with her more fluid style keeping her always one step ahead and one step farther away from her soldiers.

Finally Leo and the others had won their fight, and they came to their side. Leo yelled over the noise of New York, "Raph, give it up! You can't beat her!"

Raph responded while still deep in concentration on what he was doing. "I. Can. Beat. ANYBODY!" With that he followed Karai as she ran towards a ledgthat hat would grant her access to the rooftops above. "You know Leo has the hots for you, right?"

"Raph, shut up."

"No, really, princess-" he caught her by the arm and kicked, but her armor prevented much pain. "-he went on and on about how 'she might be in the Foot, but she's still a good person'".

"I said SHUT THE HELL UP!"

Raph had Karai pinned down at this point- the star of the Foot Clan, reduced to a glare and a deep purple bruise forming just below her eye where he'd managed to get a punch in. "So you know what?" he whispered.

"What?" she all but spat the words back at him.

"I'd rather hurt him than you." There was a mischievous gleam to the ninja's eyes, and he must've been seriously pissed at Leo, because he leaned down and pressed his lips to Karai's for an instant.

And that instant was all it took for Leo's heart to shatter and his anger to swell into the fastest run, the hardest punch... The strongest hatred towards Raph atthat moment, when he shoved him off the kunoichi from Japan, and she disappeared into the shadows while wiping her mouth on her sleeve.

Leo pushed Raph hard. "What the hell was that?"

Raph grinned evilly. "What can I say, she's hot, you were right."

"ARE YOU FREAKING HAPPY NOW?! You had to do that, really, you had to freaking kiss her?"

"Yeah, I kind of did." Raph told him, looking him in the eye when he said it. "And, yeah, I am happy now. Just don't make fun of me again, because next time something might happen to your Space Heroes doll."

"It's an action figure!" Leo yelled as Raph walked off.

"Come on. Patrol's ended anyway."

After Mikey and Donnie had walked into the Lair, Raph murmured so only Leo could hear, "She was a pretty awesome kisser, though."

He earned a punch, but both brothers knew they were forgiven.


	2. Rooftops

She never thought her first kiss would be against her will and with a mutant. Truth be told, she hadn't really thought about what her first kiss would be like; she'd always focused solely on training and destroying the rat who'd taken her mother from her.

She wiped her mouth on her sleeve, staring self-consciously at her reflection. Usually what she saw was a confident teen with a knack for punching people's lights out. Today, however, she saw a girl whose features were reminiscent of her own, but whose expression conveyed something entirely alien to her- fear. What a horrible thing to feel; these thoughts shouldn't even cross her mind.

And yet she couldn't stop thinking about it.

She sighed and turned away- she didn't want to look at that image anymore. Where there should've been an icy expression, she saw worry, and where there should've been naturally pale skin, there was a trail of non-waterproof makeup running down her face.

She touched her cheek. Tears. Her body itself had betrayed her.

Karai was used to winning every fight, so it should've bothered her more when that stinking turtle beat her. But what was more disturbing was the fact that he had kissed her without a second glance. Clearly it was some kind of trickery. She just hadn't figured out what he had to gain from it yet.

Although she had decided something: it had formed a wedge between two of them quickly, as much as she saw anyway. And that was something she could possibly use to her advantage.

Another thing she wasn't yet sure of.

He paced the rooftop until he felt the tingle between his shoulderblades that meant someone was watching. Without turning around, he tossed behind him, "Been wondering when you'd show up, princess."

She jumped down to join him. "Why?"

"Why what?"

She whipped out a previously concealed tanto (her favorite blade) and expanded on her previous question. "I think you know what I mean." The edge of the blade nicked Raph just under the chin, and a minuscule stream of blood trickled down his neck.

He forced a laugh, like it didn't bother him at all that he could be dead in less than a second. "Relax, princess. It was just to bug my idiot older brother."

Karai drew her tanto back ever so slightly and her racing heartbeat slowed by a fraction of a second. "This is neutral ground. You have my word that you will not be harmed."

"You are one stiff girl, princess." His lips twitched like he was holding back a smile. "Nice unokubi."

She glanced at her tanto, surprised he could tell what type it was. It did stand out- with a single sharpened edge, a flat back, and a short, wide, groove extending to the middle of the blade, the unokubi was dying out; that is to say, it was one of the more uncommon of the current era. Her father had had it specifically forged in a small yet renowned blacksmith's just south of Okinawa, Japan. She was allowed to watch its creation, one of her fondest memories.

Karai nodded. "They're from the Heian period. Not too common anymore."

"Yeah, princess, I do know my weapons pretty well."

A hint of a smile graced her face. Maybe this mutant wasn't as bad as the others- the irritating tall one, the stupid one, and most importantly, the annoying leader who more often than not acted like a puppy trailing at his master's heels.

She was not a fan of puppies.

Perhaps this one was more ruthless than that.

She had one more thing to ask, which had just popped into her mind. "How did you know I'd come here?"

He shrugged. "Truth be told, princess, I didn't. But this is where I come when I need to think, and I'd sure as hell be thinking at this point." He turned his head to look at her, a smile flickering across his sharp features.

"We're not so different, you and I."

**There it is, guys. Several people requested a chapter story, so I gave in to your wishes. (Even I, the writer, was wondering how Karai should react to the kiss) Do you think I should continue this? Tell me that, and what you like, and what you hate, in the reviews. Thanks!**

**Oh, and sorry its taking me a while to upload the next chapter of my other TMNT story, Senseless. I've actually finished writing it, but I'm on vacation and don't have my computer, so I uploaTherese via the iPad, and there was some glitch where it didn't want to work, so hopefully that'll be up soon; if not, I get back in 2 days, so it should be up then.**

**Hope you're all having an awesome day!**


	3. Watashi no ojo- My Princess

Her hair flew into her face, obscuring her vision slightly before the wind died down.

They'd been sitting in a comfortable silence for a while, just staring at the sights and sounds of the city, before he spoke.

"So, uh, Shredder?"

She laughed dryly. "Yoshi?"

He smiled sadly. "Yeah... Why does your dad hate us so much?"

She turned to look him in the eye, brown meeting neon green. "The rat killed my mom."

"Hard to believe," Raph told her. "Since Shredder killed Sensei's wife and daughter."

"Maybe it was revenge."

"Maybe your dad lied."

She glared at him, hoping to hell he was wrong, yet realizing Saki had never told her the details of her mom's death.

She sighed, knowing the ninja would be just as stubborn in a verbal fight as in a physical fight, and choosing not to push it. "Whatever." She rolled her eyes blatantly. "I liked it better when we were in truce mode."

"So let's stay in truce mode."

A minute later, she sighed and leaned against the brick wall that would lead into the building from the roof, jerking back when her arm brushed past his. The contact made her realize just how close they'd been sitting, and how- for her at least- it was subconscious.

But she wasn't about to move and alarm him further. So she simply leaned back to look at the sky, leaving less than an inch of space between them.

The stars were one of her favorite parts of growing up on a secluded tiny island that was, in fact, discovered by her grandfather and named Oroku no Tochi (Oroku's land) in his honor. Since its discovery, it had been used only by the family, and while he didn't speak much about his younger years, she'd gathered that it was where her father had lived as well, up until he was eleven, that is, and old enough to train with a ninja clan... The same one, it would turn out, as Hamato.

She was indoors most of the time, training, from when she was 4, because, as she recalled him saying, "You need to be ready to defend what is yours, lest it be taken from you without your consent." On the rare occasions she had a scouting mission, or just an outdoor activity, she treasured the stars, as they were her connection to the rest of the world; the knowledge that a little girl on a tiny island looked up at the same pinpricks of light as a rabbit on the other side of the planet, was beautiful.

She couldn't see the stars tonight.

Not that she'd expected to, in the smog-filled city, but it would have been comforting, would have reminded her of home.

It was a nice change of pace here; breaking the confines of her old life meant a new setting, a new language, a new- she glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, finding he was doing the same- friend.

"Still here, princess?" His voice shook her from her trance, and she nodded without thinking.

"Yeah. I mean- no. I mean-" she took a breath and looked him in the eyes, focusing on how she was in New York with Raphael instead of Japan with her father. "Yes. I think."

She was in New York with Raphael.

She was conspiring with the enemy.

She would have tried rebellion years ago had she known it would feel so much like freedom.

She held a finger up in a mock-scientific way. "I am going to do something," she said. "And you are going to think nothing of it."

And with that, Karai initiated their second kiss.

To annoy her father, of course.

Of course.

But the sun would freeze over before Raph could think nothing of it. That phrase was associated with punching Mikey, or being the best at fighting, or Donnie inventing some new gadget to blow up in their faces.

He supposed he should've learned to practice what he preached, as he'd all but told Karai the same thing when their roles were reversed, and he had a good reason for doing it.

It couldn't have been more than a second while these thoughts buzzed through his head, before his brain short-circuited and he realized 'Holy sewer bunnies this is happening again'.

And this time, it wasn't a quick peck, a let's-annoy-big-brother-Leo thing, this time he felt her arm wrapped around his, and when his proprioception came into play, he found that part of the reason this kiss had continued was that his hand had made its way through her hair to hold the back of her head.

Finally she pulled away, got up, dusted herself off, though she'd accumulated no dirt she was aware of, and walked to the edge of the building, gauging the distance down.

Raph, along with his brothers, had learned Japanese before English, since that was Splinter's native language, and most of them would naturally speak it when their brains weren't functioning properly.

And Karai swore she heard something vaguely similar to "Watashi no himitsu no koto," whispered behind her.

"What was that?"

Looking stunned, he told her what she'd thought: "Be my secret."

She skillfully jumped off the roof, probably landing safely on a ledge somewhere, though he didn't stop to check. The wind carried a wisp of her voice back to the top.

"Why not?" was the last thing he heard.

**Hey guys! Sorry it's taken me a while to get this up, school started, so... anyway, I hate that this chapter's so cheesy, but this was my plan to keep the story moving, and there had to be sacrifices, like how the writing is the worst yet. Did you like Oroku no Tochi? Karai's childhood? As per usual, tell me what you think in a review, or a PM, or whatever you want to do.**

**See you (hopefully) later this week, when I update my other story.**


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